Posted
by
Zonk
on Thursday June 01, 2006 @09:31AM
from the can't-keep-a-good-torrent-down dept.

muffen writes "IDG.se has an interesting article up giving more details about the raid on PirateBay, and a little history of the organization. The news organ reports that nearly 200 servers were taken, and many of them had nothing to do with the torrent-serving group. After yesterday's raid, the site is back up with a single page explaining the situation. Brokep, one of the people behind PirateBay, claims that the site will be up and running within a couple of days. He also says that there is no legal basis for the raid against them and that he is certain that the case will not go to trial." From the site: "The necessity for securing technical evidence for the existence of a web-service which is fully official, the legality of which has been under public debate for years and whose principals are public persons giving regular press interviews, could not be explained. Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal."

I myself live in America and the only way I can find information on this political party is online. I wish that there were more official resources in English aside from their site [piratpartiet.se]. There seems to be one page with the content exactly the same as Christian Engström's post.

Is it possible that this party is popular via lack of information? I would like to see them explain their strategy & give very detailed specifics about what they would like to see changed and why. I think that if this was posted, it may cause them to lose some support but would definitely let Sweden & the rest of the world know a lot more about the Pirate Party. I like their desired end results but how to plan to achieve these goals?

I don't want to sound like an ass but in my opinion, having 200 servers of a controversial party raided and confiscated by the local government is one of the best things that could happen to said party. Especially since nothing incriminating was found on them. Do political parties now earn "street cred" like this? Certainly would strike a chord with the youth & idealists.

Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal.

Hmmm, sounds like pretty unlawful search and seize action...

Dennis: Come and see the corruption inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!King Arthur: *seizes the servers* Bloody file sharers!Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn't you?

Ø doesn't sound like oo. It sounds like the wovel the Queen of Britain would make if she said "Word. Bird. Nerd. Heard. Turd." And swedes don't write Ø anyway, only danes and norwegians do. They write ö (o with two dots) instead, like the germans.

Translated: "Typically swedish! You swedes who lack a sense of humour (that is, all of you) can't help but showing it to the entire world. If you really want to complain about my post, you should complain about Monthy Python."

We would very much like such a party in Romania. It would be hugely popular in the wake of the lastest events: In order to please the EU, the police concluded that all computers connected to local unregistered LANs are used for hosting/trading illegal software/movies/mp3s and began breaking the doors and seizing the computers of anyone not connected to the Cable operators who "sponsored" this operation.Link Here [gardianul.ro] (in romanian - but the picture is worth a thousands words)
The jail term for software piracy in romania is up to 15 years (more than rape) and in a few days the police arrested almost 100 people for this - with the only proof being an IP address.

The Piracy Party has stated that one of their goals is to get into EU, and to get there, they want to help out starting Piracy Parties all over Europe. So you (or other persons interested) should probably contact them if you want to start one in your country.

I could translate that, but it would take a long while. So I'm just going to (loosely) translate (some of) the relevant paragraphs... even by Romanian standards, that article is pretty shabby in legalese and IT-term-wise anyway.If it sounds strange to you, don't worry, that's what they actually wrote.

They are targetting LAN DC++ users (and LAN hubs) right now.It is unknown wether they will extend this to torrent users of well-known ISPs or not.___

The following is the translation of the bolded text in the article:

A hysteria broke all across the country following operations directed towards those who illegally use the "share" option in the so-called neighbourhood networks (translator note: LANs spanning users from a few buildings up to a few city blocks). Sources from the MAI (translator note: Ministry of Internal Affairs ? well, the police anyway) have declared the operation is code-named "The Gramophone".

Because in the IP-rights category Romania got a "yellow flag" warning from the EU, Romanian Police has enacted measures regarding weekly raids organisation in order to control this phenomenon, in all counties.

Within the scope of this endeavour, policemen and prosecutors will work together with ISPs and hub operators. Another method used by the cops to penetrate the hubs is by assuming innocuous user identities.

In Iasi (translator note: rather large city, "capital" of the county with the same name in the NE of the country, region called Moldova), cops and prosecutors have made several household searches, seizing HDDs, computers and switches. In Tulcea (translator note: city by the Black Sea coast/ Danube Delta), over 20 Internet users have ended up with penal records, and cops have confiscated "dozens" of HDDs.

The chief of the IP department from the "Parchetul General" (translator note: the higher prosecuting autority), Monica Otava, has declared that prosecutors all across the country will start [such] actions, benefitting from both legal grounds and the necessary logistics for the "annihilation" of LANs.

*Interviewer* : So, are we to understand that from now on anybody who is connected to a local LAN can end up with the police holding a search warrant at their door?*Monica Otava* : Yes, anytime, he can end up with a search warrant at his door

Though I am not an expert on Swedish law, I doubt there was anythign exactly illegal in this operation, though it was obviously heavy handed. European law works quite differently compared to US law, so any comparisons are useless.

If there was no reason for this seizure, of course compensation will be paid and if the evidence used to justify it was flawed or faked or the wrong kind, senior police officers may or may not face disiplinary action.

Of course, the police in Sweden have been caught lying and faking evidence before, such as when covering their backs after shooting someone (who was unarmed) in Gothernburg during a demonstration there a few years back.

According to this story [svt.se] It was the MPAA that was behind the raid. After being contacted by the MPAA, the US government got into talks with the swedish ministry for foreign affairs here in Sweden.
The ministry of justice contacted police and prosecutors, but they didn't want to do anything since the legal issues here are unclear. So the ministry of justice contacted the national police chief and got orders to raid the server hall.
The legality of the operation is highly questionable and borders on ministerstyre, whatever that would be called in english, it means that ministers tell government agencies what to do or how to interpret laws. This is illegal in Sweden.

"IANAL, but United States law has a provision that states you are "innocent until proven guilty".There is an amendment: "Unless you look a bit dark, enjoy towels as a fashion accessory or take pictures in public or have been abroad in which case you can be locked up indefinitely just in case you met an evildoer and became tainted""

It's good to be a member of an Red State armed militia preparing for the overthrow of the United States with assault weapons. Even if one of your members blows up a federal buildi

You are automatically equating protest with the word disruptive. Look what you have written. This alone proves you have little idea what you are talking about, nor have you been paying attention to the long past history of political "protesting". And before the knee jerk denial that you said that, look what you wrote.

I have personally witnessed this violation of rights BS and been the target of cops at *completely* peaceful protests where they went apeshit under some orders and attacked the crowd, going back to civil rights days, pre-anti nam war days, and from then onwards. Not to say violent protests don't happen as well, I won't deny that, but by no means are they all, most usually at least start out peaceful until the overt or covert(yes, this happens) functionaires start the violence, giving them the excuse to go nuts. I have seen it too many times now to not know this isn't SOP with them.

It does no good if you can't assemble where the action is, 10 miles down the road behind a fence is not "the right to assemble",the government has placed illegal and unconstitutional restrictions on a right, they have said you need "permission" to exercise a born-with right. This is illegal. That right no where states you have the right to assemble where THEY tell you to assemble. That's something they just started doing because they got the guns and follow orders from their "superior beings" whomever those entities are.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

It does not state you have "some" rights to assemble or that you can only assemble in some designated "zone". Show us where it says that, I have provided the full quote. If you can, I'll concede gracefully, but I have read that numerous times in my life, and can't seem to see those little clauses you insist are there. If it is public property, you have a right to assemble there (obviously personal private property is a different subject entirely), you have the right to your speech, and the right to be heard with your petitions, whether the petitions are oral, written, or visual, as petitions could take any or all of those forms. We the people have a right to tell our elected folks what we think about what is going on. Period. If they keep trying to dodge the petition, they are violating their duties as elected people, no matter what media form the petition is in. They can't refuse the petition. They can't legally order their mercenaries to keep you away from them when you are trying to deliver your petition to them, but they constantly do that. I know why of course, it's because by and large they are mostly corrupt crooks and want to keep their cushy well paying jobs and positions of "rule" over people.

If you got a political beef, you and your peers have a right to assemble, and to petition the government. That's it, it is that simple ancd clearly the intent of the founders. they were just coming from a time where the redcoats broke up crowds, told them they couldn't be in the town square in a group, arrested "ring leaders' for their "speech", kept them from "petitioning" the crown's authorities, etc, that's why the amendment was written exactly like that. It is beyond clear. They do NOT have the right to restrict you in such a way that they are dodging their duties as governmental workers/politicans/or functionaires, they are REQUIRED to listen to your petitions as acceptance of their official office, to follow the laws. Yes, they have to listen. They still might not agree with your petition, but they have a duty that goes with their oath. And if you come in a group, to show solidarity and the numbers,i.e., an assemblage, too bad, that is a free persons right.

They are NOT RULERS, we are NOT SUBJECTS, much as they and apparently you seem to believ

The operators of The Pirate Bay have publicly ridiculed copyright holders and taunted law enforcement for years claiming immunity to copyright laws.

Hate to break it to the spinster who wrote this, but it does appear (though IANASL) that their actions were not illegal in Sweden, and it seems to me that PB never said they were immune to copyright law; just that their specific actions didn't fall under that particular law in their particular country.

Like I said... might as well charge them with speeding; it's equally related.

Real legal experts has been all over the news outlets in Sweden saying that some people responsible for TPB will probably do some hard time for facilitating copyright infringement. Check cs.idg.se or expressen.se.

I agree, the pirate slave trade is terrible. Not only are there jobless, legless, eyeless pirates walking the streets, but now they are being sold to the highest bidder for lowly jobs such as cleaning the plank, srubbing the poop deck and purifying the bilge filters with their tongues.

That's not the only departement title that comes out disturbing when translated to english. The new government in Norway changed the name of the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs to the Ministry of Knowledge. They then changed the official translation back to education, because they thought the latter sounded to Orwellian (which it does...)

Im sure the folks at TBP were totally prepared for this raid. Their hilarious abrasiveness in the face of criticism only angered and further instigated the detractors. I am confident this group had prepared statements, lawyers already ready for the case, and these guys knew exactly how to react.

If it's CNN or NPR, it's in the very tip of the middle finger of the left hand attached to an outstretched arm. If it's the Wall Street Journal, it's somewhere deeply embedded in a rich person's pocket. If it's Fox News, it's in the middle of the brain, but unfortunately, said the head containing it is suffering from a recto-cranial inversion.

Seems like Swedish authorities gave in to the pressure from **AA groups. This may be good as it will put the general public on the side of TPB.

A poll [aftonbladet.se] in the largest evening newspaper in sweden shows what people think of the takedown of TPB.
The question in the poll is, is it right to "attack" people that are involved in filesharing. Ja = YES and Nej = NO. The results speak for themselves.

Did anyone else find it interesting that the MPAA only singled out porn ads when they talked about the ads used to make revenue. Why not just say "ads" and leave the christian-right fluff out of the press release? I'd say its because they are in an uphill battle, they know it, and they know that only a smear campaign that tries to mobilize the vocal religious minority will help them in the capitols. They're not fighting copyright infrigers, they're fighting porn pushers, and you'd better hide the women and

The results do speak for themselves. They say: "This is a web poll, and we have basically no control over who votes and how many times, nor did we pass Statistics 101 or know how to draw even vaguely scientific conclusions from the results."

Nobody is stealing stuff in USA and exporting it to Sweden. Even if distributing copyrighted data without permission could be considered theft, the people who "steal" it are just uploading a different file to Sweden. The "thief" holds the copyright to this data file and can do what ever he wants with it. The Swedes are just hosting a file whose copyright owner has given them permission to host it.

RIGHT: Unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted works is in violation of the Berne Convention, which Sweden is a signatory,WRONG: so it IS illegal for Pirate Bay to do what they are doing.Pirate Bay was NOT, under no circumstances, authorizedly or unauthorizedly redistributing copyrighted works. There were NO copyrighted works in PB's servers. ".torrent" files are just files that contain the following information: "the tracker XXX is keeping files YYY, ZZZ, TTT available for bittorrent swarm downloading." And "contributory infringement" is NOT part of the Berne convention... it's an USofAn "innovation". BTW, down here in Brasil there is no "contributory infringement" either.

The media companies make it sound like copyright is a way of limiting your rights, but it was created with the intent of creating more diversity in content by limiting the rights of the content distributors (like MPAA). It used to have clauses which ensured the consumer's rights wouldn't be stifled (such as fair use). Why was copyright law created?? Because with the invention of the printing press things could be mass replicated much easier, the idea behind copyright was to limit who could print/sell stuff, taking power from printing press/distributor and giving it back to content creator, to allow people to create and distribute new content instead of letting the printing press have a field day selling us the same old crap making huge profits. Copyright law was created so that the content creator would be properly compensated. So that the consumer wouldn't be subjected to the same crap over and over again with no new works being created.
The copyright law was made to protect the content creator and the content user. The copyright law was created to stifle the content distribution companies like MPAA, not the consumer. I don't know when this changed, but whoever had the wonderful idea of copyright would probably jam a sharp stick in his eyes if he saw what crud the content distributors have turned this law into.
The copyright law has obviously failed in the past half a century and content distributors have too much power now. It's time for another copyright law with the original intent of protecting the consumer and the content creator and to make sure media conglomerates like MPAA don't make huge profits from nothing.
There's no reason why a CD should cost $20 (and only a dime going to the creator) when the manufacturing cost of CD is in pennies... just my two cents. Sharing is caring. Let's try to put an end to the tyrannical misuse of copyright law. Thanks for reading!

If what you seem to be saying were true then the internet and cheap burnable CDs would have wiped out the record industry because there would be no incentived for artists to sign-up. But in the real world it takes losts of advertising, promotion and wheel-greasing to create a snger/band/TV show worth anything. Sure there is the rare case where some pauper creates a brilliant piece of art in their garage that the whole world starts clamoring for....bat that is the exception. In the real world there tons of f

But in the real world it takes losts of advertising, promotion and wheel-greasing to create a snger/band/TV show worth anything.

Bzzt, wrong.

What it takes is hard work. Being the son of a career musician, I can tell you that it is not hard to make a -very- decent living making music. What it does take, just as any other career, is years of constant work building a name for yourself in your community, and then beyond.

Would people please get it out of their head that labels somehow make music as a career viable. My dad has produced and sold several records, tapes and CDs in his career; has performed all over north america, and now in his late 50s owns his own recording studio and takes students. He has a waiting list of several dozen students, and has hired several teachers to help with the load.

You've probably never heard of him. His original music doesnt have raw mainstream appeal, BUT, contrary to your idea, he has made a very good living for himself through his music. And he never had a label around to rape his ideas and keep most of the money.

"Reality" has nothing to do with big buisness advertising, it has to do with hard work. Pure and simple. Does he support getting his music out there via filesharing? Yes. It helps him build his reputation and get other work.

Your reading of the history is actually wrong. The original copyright laws were codified because of printers protesting about rival print shops merely printing the same book without recompense. The original print shop's expenditures in finding new and original content were then for naught.The purpose of copyright was to protect the investment of the original commissioner, not the artist. Authors then worked on a commission basis, and weren't able to sell their manuscripts to more than one publisher. It wasn

Well, hate to defend the MAFIAA here, but the content creators gave them the copyright of their own free will.If an artist so easily releases his copyright, then they're not really an artist, but more like the guy who draws filler animation cells in North Korea.Just an employee of the company.

You know, one thing they might do to return copyright to its original intent is to make it so that copyright cannot be "transferred" as property. There should still be the ability to act on the creator's behalf, but it should be more like an agent or manager.

"Rights" cannot be sold or transferred. If, for example, I decided I never want to vote in a public election again, can I then sell my right to vote to someone who is otherwise not elligible? Could I sell my right to vote to someone so they could vote more than once? Why then can we sell "copyrights"?

The whole idea of intellectual property is really out of control and clearly well beyond its original intent. (In fact, the notion of intellectual/creative property is well beyond the intent of copyright and patent.) Will there come a day when things are restored? Will that pendulum swing the other way?

A manufacturing cost of a finished CD is a bit north of a buck. I'm guessing you're confusing it with the cost of a CD-R? At any rate, the manufacturing cost of an item usually has very little to do with the cost of sale... stating the manufacturing cost is pointless. The retailer that sells you the CD usual

The MPAA can hack servers and harvest private information [slashdot.org] if it wants; not a single MPAA employee would suffer any sort of police harrassment. But someone ostensibly assists violation of MPAA copyrights and BAM! - 200 servers are confiscated by police authorities.

The reason for this is explained in Sterling's account of the first major institutional crackdown [chriswaltrip.com] on hackers, ezine publishers and other dispensers of information which some powerful corporation don't want to see in the wild. From the text:

Another problem is very little publicized, but it is a cause of genuine concern. Where there is persistent crime, but no effective police protection, then vigilantism can result. Telcos, banks, credit companies, the major corporations who maintain extensive computer networks vulnerable to hacking -- these organizations are powerful, wealthy, and politically influential. They are disinclined to be pushed around by crooks (or by most anyone else, for that matter). They often maintain well-organized private security forces, commonly run by experienced veterans of military and police units, who have left public service for the greener pastures of the private sector. For police, the corporate security manager can be a powerful ally; but if this gentleman finds no allies in the police, and the pressure is on from his board-of-directors, he may quietly take certain matters into his own hands.

So police is acting as mercenaries for the big corporations, since otherwise they'd hire their own. Not a very comforting thought, especially considering you are nowadays likely to be arrested for suspicion of violating corporate copyrights. Remember when police and laws were used to protect citizens, not criminialize millions for hurting corporate profit machines...?

The most amazing thing of all is that the persons that were questioned, were forced to leave DNA. That's totally unheard of, and make one think that maybe this was done, and this will sound completely conspiracy nuts, on request from the US ("MPAA"). Collection of DNA has been reserved for severe crimes; Rape, murder, etc.

Personally I believe the goal here is to make an example of the ISP, PRQ. Taking non-related servers makes perfect sense in that context. They want to make sure no one dares host trackers, even if it's found to be legal! I believe the charges as they relate to "TPB" will be dropped, but they'll go ahead with materal found on the suspects home computers (sadly, it seems they weren't smart/careful enough to not sample their own warez, so to speak). However, for PR reasons they'll blur this issue, making a case against the individuals based on their home computers seem like a win against trackers.

"Personally I believe the goal here is to make an example of the ISP, PRQ. Taking non-related servers makes perfect sense in that context. They want to make sure no one dares host trackers, even if it's found to be legal!"

I'm pretty sure you are right, this is legal intimidation (as in using the legal system, not that what they do is legal)

"The most amazing thing of all is that the persons that were questioned, were forced to leave DNA. That's totally unheard of, and make one think that maybe this was done, and this will sound completely conspiracy nuts, on request from the US ("MPAA"). Collection of DNA has been reserved for severe crimes; Rape, murder, etc."

Perhaps that's true where you are, but not in Europe (not sure how much of it) - I got convicted for drink driving a few years ago in the UK and my DNA profile is now sitting in a po

My guess is that the hard drives were imaged, and some MPAA forensic analysts are going to be making lists of IP addresses from the logs as fodder for future lawsuits in the US, and the servers will be returned to piratebay, no harm no foul.

Yep, just like this old fogie predicted, the piracy issues is evolving along nicely parallel to the 50's-60's "legalize marijuana" drug movement. Good luck, but we already know how it's going to turn out. I admire idealistic youth - they're young, they'll learn.

The movement for the legalization of marijuana isn't over. It continues all over the country and it's making headway, if not in law (although several states have enacted legislation to decriminalize marijuana at their level) then in mindshare among the american public. Most of the time you can win [rational] people over by showing them statistics on yearly deaths in the US due to alcohol and to marijuana. Alcohol: 85,000, or between 1 and 2 percent of the US population every year. Marijuana: 0. FUCKING ZERO. Oh, it's possible that people have died of lung cancer caused by smoking marijuana, but then, people who don't smoke die of lung cancer, so it's not possible to show a link there. It might be, if the Federal government wasn't in the habit of suppressing all marijuana research in the states. Research done everywhere else in the world (well, just about everywhere) shows that it has numerous health benefits whether you're suffering from some illness or not.

The "zero" number you quote is only for deaths directly related to smoking it. The number for alcohol (85000) includes car related accidents. The number of direct alcohol deaths is more like 68400 - not an insignificant number. The number of car accidents related to "illicit drug use" including Marijuana is included in the 17000 number near the bottom. If we count every incident as a "Marijuana related car accident" (which I know is unreasonable) then we still end up with a number comparable to alcohol. What that says to me is that no matter what substance you have available to let people alter their minds with there is a percentage of the population that will do stupid things like drive and take other people out.

I think it's stupid that smoking it is illegal but perhaps something a little more realistic than "it's harmless" should be the message. If you tell people its harmless and the statistics start to show more indirect deaths due explicitly to Marijuana then you risk backlash.

If you tell people its harmless and the statistics start to show more indirect deaths due explicitly to Marijuana then you risk backlash.

It's still true that there are 0 direct deaths, however. Also I have an easier time believing that a car accident is due to alcohol than marijuana; marijuana does not impair the judgement so seriously as does alcohol, though it does harm reaction times. Then again, it also reduces the road rage factor - typically one is just not in so much of a hurry.

I'd like to remark that most of the Dutch think that our marihuana policy is essentialy correct. Ofcourse we have many different views, but the general opinion is that marihuana itself is not a real problem.

It's not entirely without issues, but in general alcohol and tabbacco cause more problems. Most of the marihuana related problems are legal problems (you can get a license to sell marihuana, but not to grow it. Growing is still done in a criminal setting).

We have far less problems with marihuana users then the countries that surround us. I have never seen any form of violence in a coffeeshop, while pub fights are almost normal.

What I'm trying to say is, look at the facts. Don't believe what some company with a big stake in the outcome tells you.

You sir, ought to be modded redundant. Before you make ridiculous assertions that the legalize marijuana movement ended during the 1970s, I suggest actually reading the Wikipedia article; The legal issues of cannabis [wikipedia.org]. If continual progress each and every month equates to failure in your mind, then I'm sorry but you need to revise your thought processes somewhat. Even in the U.S. at the state level, authorities are seeing the light and legalizing cannabis in small quantities - full legalization is on the way

Yep, just like this old fogie predicted, the piracy issues is evolving along nicely parallel to the 50's-60's "legalize marijuana" drug movement.

Actually, you couldn't be more wrong. Most people back then didn't do drugs if they were Joe Six-Pack. However, most people already break the law when it comes to pirating.

Not only that, the RIAA and MPAA want to get rid of fair use.

They want to make time shifting and recording TV shows illegal because using the DMCA they have made it illegal for Joe Six-pack to by pass the DRM.

This is stuff that grandma, Bob the Blue Collar worker, and Sara the Single Mom already do and they don't think its morally wrong. This was stuff they were doing in the 70s and 80s with the VCR and tape recorders.

So this is more like Prohibition of the 30's. People, young and old, don't think it is wrong and they actively do it every day without thinking twice.

The police in Sweden didn't just take the Pirate Bay servers... they also confiscated servers belonging to other, unrelated businesses as well. This, without even being sure (according to the police themselves) that the Pirate Bay people had broken any Swedish law.

Some of the other servers were related, insofar as they were also torrent servers. The site known as Karagarga was affected, as was the Asian DVD Club. There was no warrant against these sites, but they are down nonetheless... and I repeat, according to the police themselves, they are not even sure that the Pirate Bay, which they did have a warrant for, was violating any of the laws in Sweden.

What Pirate Bay did more than anything else to bring this massive shitstorm down upon their heads was not facilitate filesharing; rather, they taunted the MPAA/RIAA and their lawyers egregiously and often, and no doubt caused quite a bit of apoplexy among these people over the last few years.

Me, I'm not interested in the films that come out of Big Hollywood. I like old classics, I like arthouse, I like cult, I like rarities. The torrent site I frequent specializes in those genres, and doesn't even allow people to share Big Hollywood product. The site owners don't like the DMCA, but they do comply with it, and consequently have never been bothered by MPAA/RIAA about their activities. In their private forums, they have had a running poll going for most of a year now, which is somewhat illuminating... and overwhelming percentage of the members there (82%), people who are all quite familiar with where and how to download anything they want for free, still buy commercial DVDs and CDs! This data corroborates findings of researchers at major US universities, who have concluded that filesharing does not necessarily hurt the sales of traditional media. The research indicates that filesharing of majorly hyped Big Hollywood releases (like a new STAR WARS movie, for instance) has a small but noticeable negative impact on ticket sales and DVD rentals, but that filesharing of more obscure fare actually has a significant POSITIVE impact on ticket sales and DVD rentals -- it exposes more people to the work in question, and consequently, more people go out and buy a commercial copy of it.

It seems that the real problem is not that filesharers are evil 'pirates' who are cutting into MPAA/RIAA profits due to their wicked refusal to pay for culture... the problem is that when you buy a cinema ticket or buy/rent a DVD, and you have never seen the film or heard the album before purchasing, you are far more likely to spend money on movies and music that you ultimately find disappointing, and people don't like that. Filesharing should properly be regarded by Big Hollywood as pressure to stop making such a tremendous amount of recycled garbage, stop using marketing as the ultimate focus and raison d'etre of every film and CD produced, and get back to the old school traditions of making fine art for fine art's sake, with marketing a strictly post-production affair that has no say in what scripts get chosen or how directors do their jobs.

Would you buy a car without taking it for a test drive? Would you pay for clothes without trying them on? How many times have you walked out of a theater after a film, or ejected a DVD from your DVD player, and wished for your money back? All the actual hard data that has been collected shows that even hardcore filesharers DO go out and buy commercial DVDs and CDs; they like to own the tangibles and they like to support the artists and companies whose work they appreciate... so filesharing isn't piracy, it's more akin to trying something before you buy it, and rejecting it if it's poorly made. MPAA/RIAA's strident insistence that filesharing is piracy is simply their bid to retain their obscenely high profits without doing the tough job of making products worth buying. They prefer to work according to formulae and sell the same tired bullshit again and again, with explosions and special effects in lieu of actual

It seems that the real problem is not that filesharers are evil 'pirates' who are cutting into MPAA/RIAA profits due to their wicked refusal to pay for culture... the problem is that when you buy a cinema ticket or buy/rent a DVD, and you have never seen the film or heard the album before purchasing...

What you have just described is the Sideshow Attraction. The tent with the aggressive sales pitch and wild claims, and most often a tired rundown show inside the tent. And like the carnival barkers, the big

Hi there,I just thought I should point out something in your comment that explains the RIAA/MPAA's worries.See when you take a car out for a test drive you can tell if its crap or not quite quickly. Its the same with films, most are ones you'd only ever watch once and then never think about again.The problem is that the MPAA/RIAA know this and normally they would hype up the film and get as many sales in the first week then let it die while still making back most if not all of their money even though the fi

As it turns out, the illegal action against the pirate bay was on direct order from the swedish justice department (this is also illegal in Sweden), which in turn acted on a request from the US government, which in turn acted on behalf of MPAA.

This is all classified, but leaked to a very authoritative (as BBC) TV channel in Sweden.

Therefore, the swedish government is determined to ignore the law, as has happened so many times before.

Look for the pirate bay in the free world, i.e., in china or something.

Anyone that grabs someone by the shirt in a store is going to get sued... I don't believe this story is credible. Plus, someone that sells christian music and calls a patron a "bitch". (Not that christians don't cuss, but again, if the guy is having problems clothing his kids I doubt he's scare off a customer.)

What kind of idiot buys 1h of music on a disk, when they can get, legally or not, 16, without need to swap the disks? If you were selling vinyl records, you'd be just in the same situation. Compressionless music is in decline. Same as horse coaches replaced by trains. Piracy may have its hand in it but not as much as a source of -free- music but as a source of -music as mp3-.Damn me if I'm going to waste 60 megabytes of data storage space for one 3-minute song.

Oh, and damn me if I'm going to walk over to your store and pick the disk, then fumble through 60 disks to find the song I want, if I can sit in front of my computer at home and just download it (legally or not) without moving my lazy ass off the chair, then quickly find it on a nicely sorted list on my harddrive. And add it to the playlist of 40 favourite of given mood instead of swapping 35 disks filled mostly with crap to get to hear the 40 songs I want.

This evening, my daughters asked me. "Why do the other kids laugh at us?"

I wanted to tell them the truth - it's because they wear old clothes and have cheap haircuts. I can't afford anything better for them right now.

"It's because they are idiots, kids", I told them. "Don't listen to them."

When the kids went to bed, my wife asked me, "Will we be able to keep the house, David?"

I just shook my head, and tried to hold back the tears. "I don't know, Jenny. I don't know."

My grandparents and ancesters have been dirt farmers as far back as I know. Now I'm a computer programmer. Why? Because of corporate farming in America.

Boo hoo.

Do I cry that my 5th generation industry was stolen out from under my feet? Do I cry that my grandparents and parents endured hardships? No. They rolled with the punches and my dad worked construction/trucking. Maybe you should look into another industry. You smell the times changing, so react (you are allowed to do that, you know). Here's your plan: Get into another business and do it fast. You can keep your house if you're smart. No one is going to be crying over your family drama on Slashdot. Don't be emotionally soft and don't feel sorry for yourself. Pick yourself up and move on. Sell the store or change your business. It was a fun 12 years but the trend is over.

Legal or not, the internet will eventually kill your business anyway. You should have recognized that oh, about 6 years ago. If the record industry had an ounce of sense they would have gone to online distribution years ago and put you out of business.

My business faces ruin. Troll sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many trolls as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up. My store has survived for years, but I now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Every day I ask myself why this is happening.

I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique troll stores that sell obscure, lame jokes that no-one laughs about, not even the people that make them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the geek market. My store specialised in trolls - stuff that geeks find hilarious and/or annoying. I don't sell sick stuff like Goatse or Tubgirl, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive In Soviet Russia sections that I know of.

The business strategy worked. People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase trolls without anuses or violent diarrhea. Over the years I expanded the business and took on more clean-cut and friendly employees. It took hard work and long hours but I had achieved my dream - owning a profitable business that I had built with my own hands, from the ground up. But now, this dream is turning into a nightmare.

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Every day, fewer and fewer customers enter my store to buy fewer and fewer trolls. Why is no one buying trolls? Are people not interested in pop culture references? Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, read books? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Slashdot is mostly to blame. The statistics speak for themselves - one in three trolls world wide appears on Slashdot. On Slashdot, you can find and read hundreds of dollars worth of pop culture references in just minutes. It has the potential to destroy the lame joke industry, from artists, to troll companies to stores like my own. Before you point to the supposed "economic downturn", I'll note that the karma store just across from my store is doing great business. Unlike trolls, it's harder to copy karma on Slashdot.

A week ago, an unpleasant experience with space ninjas gave me an idea. In my store, I overheard a teenage patron talking to his friend.

"Dude, I'm going to post this troll on Slashdot right away."

"Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic], you'll get lots of +1, Funny."

I was fuming. So they were out to destroy the troll industry from right under my nose? Fat chance. When they came to the counter to make their purchase, I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "Zo...you ah going to post zis to your frends on Slushdot, punk?" I asked him in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger/Kindergarten Cop voice.

So that's my idea - a national blacklist of space ninjas. If somebody cannot obey the basic rules of society, then they should be excluded from society. If space ninjas want to steal from the pop culture reference industry, then the pop culture reference industry should exclude them. It's that simple. One strike, and you're out - no reputable troll store will allow you to buy another troll. If the pirates can't buy the trolls to begin with, then they won't be able to post them on Slashdot, will they? It's no different to doctors blacklisting drug dealers from buying prescription medicine.

I have just written a letter to the GNAA outlining my proposal. Suing space ninjas one by one isn't going far enough. Not to mention space ninjas use the fact that they're being sued to unfairly portray themselves as victims. A national register of space ninjas would make the problem far easier to deal with. People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected space ninjas to a hotline, similar to Bust Your Boss. Once we know the size of the problem, the police and other law enforcement agencies will be forced to take space ninjutsu serio

Yeah! We can all pirate again!We could pirate anyways. Bittorrent isn't the only protocol out there, and TPB isn't the only tracker.

We can all freely download all those shows and movies and music and software produced by the companies represented by the RIAA and MPAA and BSA!None of the stuff I pirate is produced by companies represented by the RIAA, MPAA, or BSA. There *is* other content out there, you know.

We can continue this amazing paradox in which we bash the quality of their product while we spend ex

Sure they were being deliberately offensive, but they had solid, legal swedish case law behind them, so seeing whether they would last was a test of the integrity of the legal system (and the speed of the political system in making what they did actually illegal).

Yes, that is exactly what they were doing. It's roughly similar to civil disobedience.

They were saying: We are the people, we want things this way. A democratic government is obliged to respect our wishes because we are a majority of the population. Foreign corporations cannot make up ethics and laws to suit their business plan, they require our consent.

They have always been treating this as a political battle, not a legal one. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Sweden is unusual in that a large portion of the populace is informed about this issue and supports TPB rather than the MPAA. I don't think this is over yet.

That would be the 'roughly' part. It's similar in that the goal is to force the hand of the opposing party. With regular civil disobedience, the goal is to force the government to put people in jail for things which are obviously stupid. Here, it's to force the MPAA to take them to court. In both cases the objective is to put an end to rhetoric and vague threats. TPB's position is that they are going to win in court, and then the MPAA will be screwed.